This application claims benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-105140 filed on Apr. 6, 2000, the contents of which are incorporated by the reference.
The present invention relates to user-directed data providing systems and methods and, more particularly, to mobile-user-directed data providing systems and methods, which serve users having portable data terminals by learning not only user""s preferences but also user group""s preferences and providing trend data obtained by the learning with the present time, the position and the preference of each user taken into considerations.
The applicant earlier proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-312487 a system, which utilizes data providing service broadcasting and receiving, in a portable terminal, advertisement which is produced by taking user""s position data and preference data into considerations. The applicant also proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-290379 a system for automatically obtaining personal preferences from personal action patterns. To get service utilizing this system, the user carries a portable terminal having a GPS position obtaining mechanism. The portable terminal can recognize shops and other spots frequently visited by the user, and extract user""s preferences from attribute data of the shops and other spots.
Meanwhile, a cooperative filtering technique is well known in the art as a mechanism for collecting personal data, grouping the collected data and providing common proposals for each group. For example, in order to learning customer""s needs and preferences from historical data for more personalized one-to-one marketing a technique, (http//www.netperceptions.com/) which utilizes the cooperative filtering technique, has been provided. The above systems (Japanese Patent Applications No. 11-323487 and 11-290379) provide data, on which user""s preferences learned in areas visited by users are reflected. This means that these systems can provide data, in which only preference data obtained from usual action patterns of the individual users are taken into considerations. Therefore, in areas first visited by users, data with user""s preference data reflected thereon may not be provided, or it may be meaningless to provide data with user""s preference data reflection.
For example, a case will be considered, in which a user who frequently goes to Italian restaurants so that his or her preference data has been learned such that he or she xe2x80x9clikes Italian hoodsxe2x80x9d, is going to make a trip to Hakone. In this case, the systems provide data of Italian restaurants in Hakone to the user. However, if the user also has a preference that he or she more likes local dishes in sight-seeing areas, the user desires data of local dishes. However, in the technique described above, local dish spots not visited by the user are not learned, and no data as desired is provided.
An object of the present invention is to realize a technique, which can solve the above problems by learning not only preferences of individual users carrying portable data terminals but also user group""s preferences and thus providing trend data on the basis of the group""s preference data by taking the present time, present position and preferences of each user into considerations, thus providing effective data for the users. In addition, since the present invention seeks to provide user group""s preference data of subject user groups for data providers, the data providers can manage customer data and utilize these data as marketing data. Furthermore, data providers providing advertisement data can use group""s preference data for producing effective advertisements.
A first invention is a mobile-user-directed data providing system comprising a portable data terminal, a center and a data-provider-directed terminal, the terminals and the center being interconnected by a communication line, wherein: the portable data terminal includes: a position managing means for obtaining and managing the position of the portable data terminal; a communication managing means for managing the position data, time data of time when the position data is obtained and user ID specifying a user as transmission data, transmitting the transmission data to the center and receiving data therefrom; and data displaying means for displaying the data received from the center; the center includes: a communication managing means for transmitting and receiving data to and from the portable data terminal and the data-provider-directed terminal; user data material extracting means for extracting the present time and the present place of each user from data received therefrom and preserving the extracted data; a spot data database for storing the position data and spot data of explanation contents concerning restaurants and sight-seeing spots; a preference learning means for learning user""s preferences from the data stored in the user data material extracting means and the spot data database; a user""s preference data database for storing each user""s preference data produced by learning in the preference learning means; a group""s preference learning means for learning user group""s preference data from the data stored in the user""s preference data database; a group""s preference data database for storing user group""s preference data produced by learning in the group""s preference learning means; a user""s status matching means for selecting spot data on the basis of the user""s present time and present place, preference data and user group""s preference data obtained with the user ID from the user""s preference data database and the group""s preference data database, respectively, and instructing the communication managing means to transmit the selected spot data to the user""s portable data terminal; a data-provider-directed data producing means for instructing the communication managing means to transmit the result of retrieval of subject user group""s preference data in the group""s preference data database for each data provider to the data-provider-directed terminal; and a data inputting means for inputting the spot data from the data-provider-directed terminal to the spot data database; and the data-provider-directed terminal includes a communication managing means for transmitting and receiving data to and from the center; a spot data producing means used by the data provider for producing contents of spot data and instructing the communication managing means to transmit the produced spot data to the center; a spot data database for storing the spot data produced in the spot data producing means; and a group s preference data database for receiving the group s preference data transmitted from the center and received via the communication managing means.
Thus, it is possible to learn not only preferences of individual users carrying portable data terminals but also user group""s preference data and provide trend data on the basis of the group""s preference data by taking the present time, present position and preferences of each user into considerations. According to the present invention, it is thus possible to provide effective data for users. In addition, according to the present invention user group""s preference data of subject user groups are provided for data providers. The data providers thus can effectively produce data. For example, the data providers can manage customer data and utilize these data as marketing data. Furthermore, data providers providing advertisement data can use group""s preference data for producing effective advertisement.
In a modified invention of the first invention, the spot data database deals with advertisement data as spot data. Thus, the center can get the advertisement income. In another modified invention, the communication line is a portable telephone line. Thus, it is possible to use the existing systems.
A second invention is a mobile-user-directed data providing method in a data providing system comprising a user""s portable data terminal, a center and a data-provider-directed terminal, the terminals and the center being interconnected by a communication line, comprising: a step of learning user""s preferences from a spot data database, in which position data and spot data of explanation contents such as restaurants and sight-seeing spots are stored, and storing the learned user""s preference data in a use""s preference data database; a step of extracting the user""s present time and present place data received from the user and preserving the extracted data; a step of learning user group""s preference data from data stored in the user""s preference data database and storing the learned data in a group""s preference data database; a step of selecting spot data on the basis of the user""s present time and present position, and preference data and user group""s preference data obtained with user ID from the user""s preference data base and the group""s preference data base obtained from user""s group preference data, and instructing the transmission of the selected spot data to the portable data terminal of the user; a step of retrieving user group""s preference data in the group""s preference data database as subject for each data provider and transmitting the result of retrieval to the data-provider-directed terminal; a step of inputting the spot data from the data-provider-directed terminal to the spot data database; a step of producing contents of spot data, storing the produced contents in a spot data database and instructing the transmission of the produced spot data to the center; and a step of receiving group""s preference data and storing the received data in the group""s preference data database.
Thus, according to the present invention it is possible to learn not only preferences of individual users carrying portable data terminals but also user group""s preference data and provide trend data on the basis of the group""s preference of each user into considerations. It is thus possible to provide effective data for users.
In addition, user group""s preference data of subject user groups are provided for data providers. The data providers thus can effectively produce data. For example, it is possible to manage customer data and utilize group""s preference data as marketing data. Furthermore, data providers providing advertisement data can use group""s preference data for producing effective advertisements.
In a modified invention of the second invention, the spot data database deals with advertisement data as spot data. Thus, the center can get the advertisement income. In another modified invention, the communication line is a portable telephone line. Thus, it is possible to use the existing systems.
Other objects and features will be clarified from the following description with reference to attached drawings.